Myriad Universes_ Echoes And Refractions Part 45

Thanks to: Marco Palmieri, the editor who dragged me into this. Lucienne Diver, the agent who kept me honest. GraceAnne Andrea.s.si DeCandido, the mom who read it all over and made sure it didn't suck. The many writers of the TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep s.p.a.ce Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager and the movie Star Trek: First Contact, on whose work I riffed. The novels Vulcan's Heart by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, Reunion by Michael Jan Friedman, and A Time to Kill by David Mack; the eBooks A Sea of Troubles by J. Steven York and Christina F. York and The Oppressor's Wrong by Phaedra M. Weldon; the series New Frontier by Peter David and Corps of Engineers by various folks; and my own Articles of the Federation, Q & A, The Art of the Impossible, The Brave and the Bold Book 2, Perchance to Dream, War Stories Book 1, Demons of Air and Darkness, and the I.K.S. Gorkon novels, all of which provided characters and/or situations used herein. Star Charts by Geoffrey Mandel and the websites Memory Alpha (www.memory-alpha.org) and Memory Beta (startrek.wikia.com), valuable reference sources all. And the folks who live with me, human and feline both, who remind me every day that I am blessed with love and affection.

And finally thanks to the actors who provided faces and voices for me to work with: Marc Alaimo (Dukat), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Casey Biggs (Damar), Avery Brooks (Sisko), Lanei Chapman (Rager), Josh Clark (Carey), Alicia Coppola (Stadi), Elizabeth Dennehy (Shelby), James Doohan (Scott), Michael Dorn (Worf), John Durbin (Lemec), Terry Farrell (Dax), John Fleck (Koval), Mich.e.l.le Forbes (Ro), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Spencer Garrett (Ta.r.s.es), Susan Gibney (Benteen), Max Grodenchik (Rom), John Hanc.o.c.k (Haden), J. G. Hertzler (Martok), Michael Horton (Daniels), Scott Jaeck (Cavit), Barry Jenner (Ross), James Lashly (Primmin), Joanne Linville (Charvanek), Robert Mandan (Pa'Dar), Kenneth Marshall (Eddington), Gates McFadden (Crusher), Colm Meaney (O'Brien), Kate Mulgrew ( Janeway), Stephanie Niznik (Perim), Robert O'Reilly (Gowron), Leland Orser (Lovok), Ernest Perry Jr. (Whatley), Richard Poe (Evek), Lawrence Pressman (Krajensky), Andrew J. Robinson (Garak), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Armin s.h.i.+merman (Quark), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Herschel Sparber ( Jaresh-Inyo), Brent Spiner (Data), Patrick Stewart (Picard), Joel Swetow ( Jasad), Linda Thorson (Ocett), Tony Todd (Kurn), Nana Visitor (Kira), Garrett w.a.n.g (Kim), and Clarence Williams III (Ometi'klan).

BRAVE NEW WORLD.

In the author's note to my previous novel for Pocket Books, X-Men: The Return, I mentioned that I had been researching the project for the last twenty-five years. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I have been researching for this story even longer.

I don't remember a time before Star Trek. I was born a little over a year after "The Turnabout Intruder" aired, and I started watching the reruns early enough that Trek has been for me an almost constant presence in my life for as long as I can recall. I watched all the reruns, the animated series, read all the Gold Key comics, played with the Mego action figures. When Pocket Books started the line of Star Trek novels in the early eighties, I was there in the front row. I'd read the Alan Dean Foster novelizations, and a few of the Bantam originals, but it wasn't until I read those early Pocket novels that I realized not only what Star Trek could be, but what science fiction itself was capable of being. Books like Diane Duane's The Wounded Sky, A. C. Crispin's Yesterday's Son, and John M. Ford's The Final Reflection brought a level of sophistication to both the storytelling and to the speculative aspects that I hadn't experienced in any novels before, Star Trek or otherwise, and which the televised Trek had only rarely approached. Those books were, in a very real sense, my introduction to real science fiction, and probably played a bigger role in my becoming the writer I am today than I even realize.

In the years that followed, as Trek returned to television, in so many ways finally realizing the promise of those Pocket novels in the best episodes of The Next Generation, Deep s.p.a.ce Nine, and Enterprise, I read more widely, both within the genre and without (along the way finding time to join several Star Trek fan clubs, to say nothing of being a card-carrying member of the Klingon Language Inst.i.tute). Whenever possible, though, I checked back in with the Pocket Star Trek line, to see what was new, and to see if the high level of quality I'd found in those early years was still to be found. In the exemplary novels of writers like Peter David, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Greg c.o.x, and Christopher L. Bennett, I've been happily far from disappointed.

As I've said, Trek has been a constant presence in my life for as long as I can recall, but for some two and a half decades the same has been true of the Pocket line of Star Trek novels. To have the opportunity to contribute to that line, in some small way, has been a longtime ambition of mine, and many thanks are due to Marco Palmieri for allowing me to fulfill that dream, and to Jennifer Heddle for introducing us in the first place. Thanks are also due to Memory Alpha, for proving an invaluable resource, and to Michael and Denise Okuda and Rick Sternbach, whose Trek reference books have been on my shelves for years, and which I've finally and at long last put to good use. And more than anyone, thanks are due to Gene Roddenberry and all those who came after him, too many writers and producers to name, for providing a world in which I've lived in my thoughts for so many years.

About the Authors Twenty years ago, GEOFF TROWBRIDGE wrote an arrangement of Alexander Courage's Star Trek theme for his high school orchestra, and conducted the piece at his senior concert. This represented a victorious confluence of his three greatest pleasures: music, science fiction, and just generally behaving obnoxiously in front of large crowds of people.

As time pa.s.sed, Geoff found additional creative outlets, such as playing in a big-hair rock band and performing with the local civic theater, but in time he settled into a more respectable career path in computer networking. Through the miracle of self-publis.h.i.+ng on the Internet, Geoff found a new outlet via the written word, and spent long hours probing into the more philosophical areas of religion, theology, and politics-partly because of the potential for self-actualization, but mostly because it was fun to watch the heads of the closed-minded routinely explode.

Throughout it all, he never lost his love for Star Trek (though Voyager would often strain the relations.h.i.+p), and eventually his online connections led him to join the "Timeliners," who researched and compiled the novel chronology for Jeff Ayres's Voyages of Imagination. Geoff followed that up with his short story "Suicide Note" in The Sky's the Limit. The Chimes at Midnight is his first published novel.

When he isn't writing, he is usually either working his day job at the public library, researching the family genealogy, running chaotically around Elkhart, Indiana, with his wife and three children, or angrily throwing objects at the television during a Notre Dame football game. His latest exploits are irregularly chronicled at http://troll-bridge.livejournal.com.

A Gutted World is KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO's fifteenth Star Trek novel, in addition to seven short stories, eleven eBooks, one novella, and ten comic books. His recent and upcoming work includes the Klingon Empire novel A Burning House; the eBook Enterprises of Great Pitch and Moment, the concluding chapter in the six-part Star Trek: The Next Generation anniversary miniseries Slings and Arrows; the short story "Family Matters" in the Mirror Universe anthology Shards and Shadows; the Alien Spotlight comic book Klingons: Four Thousand Throats...; the TNG comic book miniseries Reds.h.i.+rts; and a novella in the 2009 anthology Seven Deadly Sins. Keith has written in dozens of other universes as well, ranging from television (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, CSI: NY, Supernatural) to movies (Serenity, Resident Evil) to videogames (World of Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Starcraft) to comic books (SpiderMan, the X-Men) to his own fantasy universe (the novel Dragon Precinct and several short stories). Find out less about Keith at his website, www.DeCandido.net, or read his inane ramblings at kradical.livejournal.com.

CHRIS ROBERSON's novels include Here, There & Everywhere, The Voyage of Night s.h.i.+ning White, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, X-Men: The Return, Set the Seas on Fire, The Dragon's Nine Sons, and the forthcoming End of the Century, Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, and Three Unbroken. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Asimov's, Interzone, Postscripts, and Subterranean, and in anthologies such as Live Without a Net, FutureShocks, and Forbidden Planets. Along with his business partner and spouse Allison Baker, he is the publisher of MonkeyBrain Books, an independent publis.h.i.+ng house specializing in genre fiction and nonfiction genre studies, and he is the editor of the anthology Adventure Vol. 1. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award three times-once each for writing, publis.h.i.+ng, and editing-twice a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and twice for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Short Form (winning in 2004 with his story "O One"). Chris and Allison live in Austin, Texas, with their daughter, Georgia. Visit him online at www.chrisroberson.net.